Publications

CZAP Publications

• Bendrey, R., Richardson, A., Elliott, S. & Whitlam, J. 2014. Environmental archaeologies of Neolithisation: Europe, Environmental Archaeology Special Issue 19:3, 181-183, DOI: 10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000038

• Bendrey, R., Richardson, A., Elliott, S. & Whitlam, J. 2015. Environmental archaeologies of Neolithisation: Old World case studies, Environmental Archaeology Special Issue 20:3, 221-224, DOI: 10.1179/1749631415Y.0000000020 

• Bendrey, R., Whitlam, J., Elliott, S., Aziz, K.R., Matthews, R. & Matthews, W. 2016. ‘Seasonal rhythms’ of a rural Kurdish village: ethnozooarchaeological research in Bestansur, Iraq. In L.G. Broderick (ed.) People with Animals: Perspectives & Studies in Ethnozooarchaeology. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 42-56.

• de Groene, D., Bendrey, R., & Matthews, R. 2021. Pigs in the Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent: New evidence from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Bestansur and Shimshara, Iraqi Kurdistan (7800–7100 BC). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 31:6, 1258–69. DOI:10.1002/oa.3035

• de Groene, D., Bendrey, R., Müldner, G., Coogan, A. and Matthews, R. 2023. Sheep and goat management in the Early Neolithic in the Zagros region (8000–5000 BC): New zooarchaeological and isotopic evidence from Ganj Dareh, Bestansur and Jarmo. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 49, 103936, DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103936

• de Groene, D., Fazeli Nashli, H. and Matthews, R. 2023. The Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic transition in north-eastern Iran: Zooarchaeological evidence from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Antiquity, 1-16, DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2023.37

• Elliott, S., Bendrey, R., Whitlam, J., Rauf Aziz, K. & Evans, J. 2015. Preliminary ethnoarchaeological research on modern animal husbandry in Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan: Integrating animal, plant and environmental data. Environmental Archaeology Special Issue 20:3, 283-303, DOI: 10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000025

• Flohr, P., Fleitmann, D., Zorita, E., Sadekov, A., Cheng, H., Bosomworth, M., Edwards, L., Matthews, W. and Matthews, R. (2017) Late Holocene droughts in the Fertile Crescent recorded in a speleothem from northern Iraq. Geophysical Research Letters, 44:3, 1528­-1536. doi: DOI: 10.1002/2016GL071786

• Fournié, G., Pfeiffer, D.U. & Bendrey, R. 2017. Early animal farming and zoonotic disease dynamics: modelling brucellosis transmission in Neolithic goat populations. Royal Society Open Science 4, 160943, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160943

• Godleman, J., Almond, M.J. & Matthews, W. 2016. An infrared microspectroscopic study of plasters and pigments from the Neolithic site of Bestansur, Iraq. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7, 195-204, DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.04.013

• Iversen, I. 2015. The molluscs of Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan: A case study of Early Holocene Helix salomonica exploitation in the Zagros. Environmental archaeologies of Neolithisation: Old World case studies. Environmental Archaeology Special Issue 20:3, 239-250, DOI:10.1179/1749631415Y.0000000023

• Matthews, W. 2016. Humans and fire: changing relations in early agricultural and built environments in the Zagros, Iran, Iraq. The Anthropocene Review 3:2, 1-33. DOI: 10.1177/2053019616636134 

• Matthews, R., Mohammadifar, Y., Matthews, W. & Motarjem, A. 2010. Investigating the Early Neolithic of Western Iran: the Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP). Antiquity, http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/matthews323/ 

• Matthews, R., Matthews, W. & Mohammadifar, Y. (eds). 2013. The Earliest Neolithic of Iran: 2008 Excavations at Sheikh-E Abad and Jani. CZAP Reports Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxbow Books and British Institute for Persian Studies. 

• Matthews, R. & Fazeli Nashli, H. (eds). 2013. The Neolithisation of Iran. Oxford: Oxbow Books and BANEA.

• Matthews, R., Matthews, W., Raheem, K.R. & Aziz, K.R. 2016. Current Investigations into the Early Neolithic of the Zagros Foothills of Iraqi Kurdistan. In K. Kopanias and J. MacGinnis (eds). The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions. Oxford: Archaeopress, 219-28. Available here.

• Matthews, R., Richardson, A. and Maeda, O. 2018. Behind all those stones: activity and society in the pre-pottery Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent. In R.B. Salisbury, F. Höflmayer and T. Bürge (eds). Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, University of Vienna, 25-29 April 2016, Vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 377-390. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvcm4fnh.31

• Matthews, R., Matthews, W., Richardson, A., Raheem, K. R., Walsh, S., Aziz, K. R., Bendrey, R., Whitlam, J., Charles, M., Bogaard, A., Iversen, I., Mudd, D. and Elliott, S. 2019. The early Neolithic of Iraqi Kurdistan: current research at Bestansur, Shahrizor Plain. Paleorient 45.2: 13-32.

• Matthews, R., Matthews, W., Rasheed Raheem, K. & Richardson, A. (eds). 2020. The Early Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent: Excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, Iraqi Kurdistan. CZAP Reports Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxbow Books. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.4279388.

• Matthews, R., Matthews, W., Rasheed Raheem, K., Mohammadifar, Y., Raouf Aziz, K., Motarjem, A., Bendrey, R., Richardson, A., Elliott, S., Whitlam, J., Iversen, I., Charles, M., Bogaard, A., Mudd, D. and Walsh, S. 2020. Long-term human-environment interactions in the Neolithic of the Central Zagros of Iran and Iraq, 10,000-6000 BC. In J. Eidem (ed.) Zagros. Proceedings of a Workshop Held in Leiden, December 2014. PIHANS 130. Leiden, NINO: 5-18.

• Matthews, R. & Fazeli Nashli, H. 2022. The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Achaemenid Empire, (A. Richardson ills ed.). London: Routledge. DOI:10.4324/9781003224129.

• Mudd, D. 2019. The archaeology of discard and abandonment: Presence and absence in the ground stone assemblage from Early Neolithic Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan. In A. Squitieri and D. Eitam (eds). Stone Tools in the Ancient Near East and Egypt: Ground stone tools, rock-cut installations and stone vessels from Prehistory to Late Antiquity. Oxford: Archaeopress, 9-26. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvndv6xd.6 

• Richardson, A. 2014. Early clay technologies: studies in Early Neolithic clay usage from the Central Zagros. In Proceedings of the 8th ICAANE, Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 41-53.

• Richardson, A. 2018. Neolithic materials and materiality in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. In T. Pereira, X. Terradas and N. Bicho (eds). The Exploitation of Raw Materials in Prehistory: Sourcing, Processing and Distribution. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 506-519. 

• Richardson, A. 2019. Pre‐Pottery Clay Innovation in the Zagros Foothills. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 38.1, 2-17. DOI: 10.1111/ojoa.12155

• Walsh, S. 2022. Early evidence of extra-masticatory dental wear in a Neolithic community at Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. DOI: 10.1002/oa.3162

• Whitlam, J., Bogaard, A., Matthews, R., Matthews, W., Mohammadifar, Y., Ilkhani, H. and Charles, M. 2018. Pre-agricultural plant management in the uplands of the central Zagros: the archaeobotanical evidence from Sheikh-e Abad. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 27, 817-831. DOI: 10.1007/s00334-018-0675-x

CZAP Doctoral Theses

• de Groene, D. 2022. Animal management during the transition from mobile hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture in the Eastern Fertile Crescent and the Caspian Sea Littoral. University of Reading.

• Elliott, S. 2016. Investigating early animal management in the Zagros mountains of Iran and Iraq: integrating field and laboratory methods for the identification and analysis of ancient faecal material. University of Reading.

• Iversen, I. 2016. Living in an Early Neolithic community: investigation of the social structure of settlement by microartefactual analysis of spatial organisation of activities at Bestansur, Central Zagros and Boncuklu, Central Anatolia. University of Reading.

• Mudd, D. 2017. Ground Stone Assemblage from Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan: Economic and Social Implications. University of Reading.

• Whitlam, J.T. 2015. Plant use and Neolithic societies of the eastern Fertile Crescent c. 10,000 - 5500 BC. University of Reading.

Bibliographical references in this web-site

• Jones, M.D. & Roberts, C.N. 2008. Interpreting lake isotope records of Holocene environmental change in the Eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary International 181, 32-8.

• Stevens, L.R., Wright, H.E. & Ito, E. 2001. Proposed changes in seasonality of climate during the Lateglacial and Holocene at Lake Zeribar, Iran. The Holocene 11:6, 747-55.

• Van Zeist, W. 2008. Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation at Zeribar. Diatom Monographs 53-104.

• Van Zeist, W. & Bottema, S. 1977. Palynological investigations in western Iran. Paleohistoria, 19, 19-95.

• Smith, P.E.L. 1990. Architectural innovation and experimentation at Ganj Dareh, Iran.World Archaeology 21:3, 323-35.

• Zeder, M.A. 2005. A view from the Zagros: new perspectives on livestock domestication in the Fertile Crescent. In J.-D. Vigne, J. Peters & D. Helmer (eds). First Steps of Animal Domestication. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 125-46.

• Zeder, M.A. 2006. A critical assessment of markers of initial domestication in goats (Capra Hircus). In M.A. Zeder, D. Bradley, E. Emschwiller & B. Smith (eds). Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press, 181-206.